How Lioness: the Origin Story Podcast Came to be
When the Pittsburgh-based, non-profit The Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) invited me to screen my documentary Lioness, in June of 2023, to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, I was thrilled. The VBC’s mission “to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories” aligned perfectly with my motivation for making the Lioness documentary. As a writer/filmmaker, the fact that more than fifteen years after its debut, interest in the film persisted meant a great deal.
At the time of its release in 2008, my collaborator and I weren’t sure how it would be received. A number of Iraq War documentaries had already come out but Lioness broke through and got attention from the New York Times and CNN. Why? The story of a group of female Army support soldiers – the original Team Lioness – who deployed to Iraq in 2003-4 and fought with the Marines in some of the bloodiest street fighting of the Iraq War was a shock to the public. Women in combat? What?
I remember at one post-screening discussion in 2009, a concerned audience member said, “It’s bad enough we have men in combat. Your film makes it seem like you want women in combat too. Is that what you’re advocating?” Another person seconded the comment. Then a third. With the ‘gotcha’ cloud hanging over me I calmly pointed out that they were asking the wrong question. It didn’t matter what I thought or what the audience thought. History had already turned the corner. Servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan were in combat and in larger numbers than ever before.
USMC Sgt. Major Raquel Painter serving as an FET in Afghanistan, (Episode 9)
The question to ask was why weren’t these women getting the recognition and benefits from both the DoD and the VA that they deserved? At the time, the Department of Defense’s Combat Exclusion Policy for Women was still in effect. That policy left women servicemembers and their command structures operating under a cloud of ambiguity. Much of what the Lioness soldiers did wasn’t formally documented. Revealing the disconnect between policies in Washington and boots-on-the-ground reality was a critical part of our film’s outreach.
In 2013 – ten years after the first Lioness missions in Iraq and five years after the Lioness documentary was released – DoD finally dropped the charade that women weren’t in combat and rescinded the Combat Exclusion Policy. By then it wasn’t just the Lionesses who were finding themselves in battle. It was women who served on Female Engagement Teams and Cultural Support Teams as well as pilots, platoon leaders, truck drivers and more. Still, it took a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of four servicewomen who were willing to take a stand to get DoD to confront reality. It was the start of tearing down the brass ceiling.
Army Warrant Officer Raquel Patrick as a Cultural Support Team Leader with 3rd Special Forces Group in southern Afghanistan, in 2011. (Episode 7)
The Veterans Breakfast Club online screening of Lioness put me back in touch with the women from our film and the larger network of Lioness veterans. As we texted and emailed before the screening, I learned that many had concerns about an upcoming Paramount+ TV show called Lioness: Spec Ops, starring Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman. Although the show purported to be about women in the military, it applied the name Lioness – the moniker they had served under in Iraq – to a story that had nothing to do with their actual experiences.
No one was against kick-ass, action roles for women. The issue was more nuanced. While many saw the show as nothing more than Hollywood ‘entertainment,’ for others, especially Lioness veterans, it rekindled the pain they’d experienced from lack of recognition upon their return home.
One Lioness I know struggled for years to get disability help for her hearing loss. As a supply clerk her MOS was a non-combat position. Since her Lioness job was ‘below the radar’ and not identified on her DD214, she was denied disability support by the VA. But as a Lioness outside the wire, an IED explosion damaged her hearing in one ear. Her fight to overcome a DoD and VA bureaucracy that didn’t believe her story was an uphill battle. It took her five years to get coverage for a hearing aid she desperately needed.
Another Lioness found herself isolated from the Marine infantry unit she was ‘attached’ to and had to fight her way out alone after being surrounded by insurgents. She made it. Barely. When she shared her experience with a VA group, they didn’t believe her.
And then there was the veteran who told me about a fellow Lioness who committed suicide after her return home. It’s impossible not to think that if she had felt a little more visible and validated for her service, she might be alive today.
Once you know even a sprinkling of these women’s stories, it is easy to understand how, for some Lioness veterans, the Paramount+ TV show is hard to stomach.
Twenty years since the ad hoc first missions, the word ‘Lioness’ has accrued a special meaning. Not only does the honorific serve as a receptacle for memories, bonds, traumas, and resilience – similar to the way company or battalion heraldry does for earlier generations – but the personal stories it signifies became critical reference points in the fight for gender equity in the military and at the VA.
As the Paramount+ TV show’s July premiere drew near, some Lioness veterans discussed ways to reclaim their histories. They talked about reaching out to the show’s creators or writing an op-ed. Neither seemed satisfactory. Then I mentioned their concern to Todd DePastino, the founder and director of the Veterans Breakfast Club.
A noted historian and author of seven books, Todd’s dedication to preserving veterans’ stories is without rival. He immediately suggested we respond by doing a podcast where women veterans who lived this history — from Lioness to FETs, to CSTs and on – could command their own narrative and tell their own stories.
Lioness vet Shannon Morgan and I, along with our VBC producer Shaun Hall, posted our premier episode on July 25th. At first we allotted time at the end of each podcast to talk about the TV show Lioness: Spec Ops. But a funny thing happened. A few podcasts in, we realized that the women’s stories were infinitely more riveting than the TV show. They had the power. Discussion of the TV show had become irrelevant.
Veterans of the original Team Lioness talk about their experiences and lack of recognition on Capitol Hill, 2009. From left, Cpt. Anastasia Breslow, Sgt. Ranie Ruthig and former E-4 specialist Shannon Morgan (Episode 2)
The immense value of each veteran who tells their story on our podcast was reinforced recently when I was contacted by a woman veteran advocate working in Washington, DC. Two pieces of bi-partisan legislation, one in the House (H.R. 1753) and one in the Senate (S. 2014), I was informed, could potentially expand retroactive recognition by DoD and VA of women who served in Cultural Support Teams and, if Congressional members were persuaded, the bills could also expand to include Female Engagement Teams and Team Lioness. But there was still a need for House and Senate members and their staff to hear from the women themselves and get to know their stories. Could I help?
Thanks to the Veterans Breakfast Club and Todd’s vision, I had more than the Lioness documentary to refer them to. I also had the freshly recorded, first person accounts of women who served in all of the specific capacities under consideration. Whatever the outcome of the legislation, what I know for sure is that each time a veteran tells their story, it matters.
Daria Sommers is a writer/filmmaker based in New York. To learn more about her work go to www.dariasommers.com. Lioness: the Origin Story podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. https://lionesstheoriginstory.podbean.com/
Lioness ,the documentary film by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, is available on Apple TV and Amazon.
Top photo: Female Engagement Team in Afghanistan in 2009. USMC Sgt. Major Raquel Painter, 2nd Marine from left. (Episode 9)(Courtesy Raquel Painter)
